In the Dark
by Ruetheday
Summary: Katniss is locked up in her family's home and diagnosed as schizophrenic. She keeps having visions of the Hunger Games and other figments of her imagination. AU (kind of)


**Guys don't flip your shit or anything, but I'm baaaack (at least until I finish this story, but hopefully longer). :D**

…

If you knew, that I could take the pain  
Inflicted at thou battle  
With faithful arrows  
You might get back in the saddle  
But It's a special death you say  
For me the brown eyed daughter

Walking down the gravel path that links the Seam to the town square, I hear a scream. Eyes widening, I feel myself come alive under my skin. I'm alert. It isn't rare to catch a burglar in your house or have your purse snatched in the alleyways of District Twelve.

But this scream is different. It isn't followed by cursing, or livid footsteps running away. It's followed by another scream and another. The silence in-between is haunting.

I freeze, attempting to find the location of the shrieks. The cold winter air nips at my fingertips, my nose and cheeks. After one more cry, I am directed towards the house the end of the crunchy gravel road.

I approach small cobblestone home. The cracked windows have plywood nailed across them. Between them is a plain wooden door without a doorbell or a knocker. It smells like rotten milk mixed with a dead animal that could be underneath the shoddy porch. I climb up the narrow stairs leading to the porch and cringe as it creaks from my weight. I reach out and rap on the wooden door.

The block is now eerily quiet. I hear footsteps creak on ancient wood floors from inside as the door is carefully opened.

A small face glimpses out from behind the door. It's a girl, probably ten or eleven years old. I can only see her blue eyes and cascading blond hair. She has fair skin, but it's dirty. There are bags under her eyes and her hair is matted.

"Is everything okay?" I ask. The girl doesn't move. She looks at me expectantly. "I thought I heard someone screaming… was that you?"

She pulls the door open a little more. I can see her whole face now. She has a small upturned nose. Her lips are thin and pale pink. She has a delicate scar that runs from just below her right blue eye to her lip. She catches me staring at it and shrugs away.

"Is everything okay?" I repeat.

She looks at me like I should know the answer, and doesn't respond.

I try to look behind her, to get a glimpse of the house, but I can't see much. There's no light.

"May I come in?"

The girl shakes her head, but she looks over her narrow shoulder and then moves in front of the door and onto the porch. She wears a thin brown dress ruined with tears and stains. She has no shoes or socks. She turns around the close the door and walks down the porch onto the front steps. I follow her. She sits on the crinkly yellow grass in front of her house.

"What's your name?" I ask her.

"I'm Primrose, or Prim," she says. And suddenly I can imagine the sweet-smelling flower after its trampled and dirtied.

"What's going on in there?" I gesture towards the house.

"It's my," she hesitates and whips her head around to look at her home. "-sister," she finishes.

"She was the one screaming? Is she hurt?"

"No, no. She's fine. Everything's fine. How old are you?" She squints at me.

"I'm eighteen. Then who was screaming?"

"My sister is a year younger than you. She should be in school," Prim opens her mouth to say more, but quickly shuts it.

"Why isn't she?"

"S-she has to stay home. She can't go anymore," Prim darts her eyes away from mine and stands up. "I have to go."

I grab her boney wrist. "Please, just tell me what happened. How did you get that scar?"

She tries to yank herself away from me, but she's too frail. "Are you stalking me? Why do keep asking me stupid questions?"

I'm about to respond when I hear a high-pitched scream. It's coming from Prim's house.

"Why are you lying to me?" I shout louder than I intended. I let go of Prim, but only to race up the front steps of the porch and open the door to go inside. Prim is right behind me. When I step inside I stop running.

The house is dark and it's cold inside. I see shadows of furniture. A couch, a table with three chairs. My surveillance is interrupted by another shriek.

It comes from a room in the back of the house. I stumble my way through the darkness and find the room the screams have been coming from.

"No. Please don't go in! Look I'll tell you everything!" Prim shrieks.

"You better start talking."

If you knew, that I could take the pain  
Inflicted at thou battle  
With faithful arrows  
You might get back in the saddle  
But It's a special death you say  
For me the brown eyed daughter  
…

**Okay so this is kind of a redo of my story 'Insanity' because while I still like the idea of it, I didn't really write the first chapter well and I think that I can really build on this topic. Hope you enjoy! If you have any ideas, please let me know in a review! :) **

**Also, disclaimer, I don't own The Hunger Games or these characters, all rights to Suzanne Collins. I also don't own the image thing.**


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